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Towelhead

I don’t remember hearing about this film when it was in theaters, but I recently saw a preview for it on another DVD and was intrigued. Towelhead is the story of Jasira, a 13-year old Lebanese-American girl who is just beginning to discover her sexuality. Jasira’s combination of a physical appearance beyond her years and an age-appropriate level of naivety make her a frequent target for the sexual advances of men of all ages. Her father’s judgmental, disciplinary nature and mother’s absence leave her without anyone to talk to and, as a consequence, without the guidance or knowledge necessary to safely navigate the situations she will face. Summer Bishil (who is actually 19) is fantastic job as Jasira, and Aaron Eckhart, who I have trouble picturing as anything other than a clean-cut good guy, is surprisingly effective as the pedophile neighbor. Perhaps a bit more subtlety could have helped, because sometimes writer Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) can be a heavy handed with his themes, but overall Towelhead is still worth renting.

Wanted

I had high hopes for Wanted. The previews looked awesome, leading me to believe that it would be like a more substantive version of 2007′s Shoot Em Up. Unfortunately, Wanted‘s absurdity was equal to just about anything in recent memory. The plot is weak, the dialogue is campy, and it’s not a stretch to say that this film may have featured the worst performances I have ever seen from Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy (both of whom I really like). On the positive side, the special effects are pretty cool; although, the bullet-bending trick does get a bit repetitive after a while. If you’re into mindless action and special effects, then by all means give Wanted a shot. Just don’t rent it hoping for an Oscar caliber story. Also, this movie loses extra points for making Freeman drop the F-bomb twice. Freeman seems way too classy and intelligent to ever do that.

Snow Angels

I’ve never been a fan of Sam Rockwell, and I usually don’t like Kate Beckinsale much either. Snow Angels has, at least temporarily, changed my opinion of both actors. Focusing on the lives of a woman, her estranged alcoholic husband, and a high school student she used to babysit, the film examines how, especially in a small town, the lives of individuals can be inextricably intertwined. What makes Snow Angels so great is the authenticity of the characters. Even in the film’s most extreme moments each character’s actions remain believable. The script is excellent and the performances are all exceptional. Be sure to move this one near the top of your “must-see” list.

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Played by Will Smith, the walking box office guarantee himself, Hancock is a heavy drinking, socially challenged, bulletproof immortal. He stops criminals and saves lives, but usually does so while he’s three sheets to the wind, leaving millions of dollars in property damage in his wake. Despite his gifts, the city sees him as a nuisance and generally wishes he would go away.

During one of his ham-handed rescues, Hancock saves Ray, a well-intentioned but seemingly unsuccessful PR man, from an oncoming train. Ray (Jason Bateman), in turn, offers his image consulting services to Hancock as a means of repayment. Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), doesn’t like the idea. She doesn’t think that Hancock can be trusted and just doesn’t want him around her family. Going against his wife’s wishes, Ray procedes. Though Hancock is initially hesitant, he eventually begins to comply with Ray’s plan. Hancock’s patience is tested when he is asked to go to prison for the damage he has caused, which we are informed he has been asked to do numerous times before. Though they can’t really force him to do anything, Ray thinks that allowing the public to see what life would be like without Hancock patrolling the streets for a few weeks would do wonders for his image. While he is in prison, things start to go a little haywire in the city. Inevitably, Hancock’s services are needed again, but with what results?

This movie frustrated me. I didn’t hate it, but it could have been so much more. Hancock is such a unique character–a seriously flawed superhero–that if they would have gone just a little darker, I think this story could have been great. Instead, as the story progresses the plot twists become more and more predictable. The blend of comedy, action, and drama didn’t connect well with me, and I found myself not really caring during the film’s most emotional moments. The lack of emotional resonance could have also been related to the cast. While Smith does well with what he is given, Theron’s performance is really flat and Bateman’s character is just so weak that he comes off as pathetic.

Overall, Hancock had the potential to be something special, but ended up being a standard Hollywood blockbuster. The film isn’t going to particularly challenge or impress you, but I guess there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

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The Strangers

I, along with most other moderately serious movie goers, have grown very tired with the whole slasher / torture porn genre of horror movies that have littered theaters for the past several years. While The Strangers looks like it may fall into that genre if you just judged it from the trailer, writer/director Bryan Bertino thankfully didn’t go that route. The film’s plot is simple and straightforward, a young couple at an extremely difficult time in their relationship are terrorized by a group of, of course, strangers. The surprising thing is that it really didn’t need much of a plot. The Strangers is essentially an exercise in creating suspense, and at that it excels. Bertino gradually builds an overwhelming sense of dread around his characters before anything really goes down, making sure that you’re never too relaxed. Once things do start to happen, however, you won’t leave the edge of your seat. If you’re a fan of horror movies and appreciate the art of creating suspense, then The Strangers is definitely worth your while.

Young@Heart

Young@Heart is a documentary about a senior citizen’s choir who perform famous rock songs, including hits from The Ramones, Sonic Youth, Coldplay, etc. The film manages to be both heart wrenching and inspirational as the choir struggles to overcome the deaths of two members in the weeks leading up to their show. You can’t help but be impressed by, and feel connected to this group who is defying stereotypes and doing what they love during their golden years. Be prepared to grab some Kleenex during the last couple scenes of Young@Heart as one of the choir’s members performs an absolutely stirring rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You.” It hit me much in the same way that Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” did the first time I saw the video.

The Counterfeiters

Wow, what a movie. After I saw the outstanding animated French film Persepolis, I was about 90% sure that the Academy had chosen the wrong movie for last year’s “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar, even though I hadn’t seen all the nominees. Let’s just say I spoke too soon. The Counterfeiters is the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, a famous Jewish-German counterfeiter who was forced by the Nazis to lead a team of concentration camp prisoners ordered to produce fraudulent British currency to finance Hitler’s war effort. There have been tons of World War II movies, but this is a fresh, interesting story that we’ve never seen played out on film. Karl Markovics is excellent as Sorowitsch and director Stefan Ruzowitzky shows some serious skill behind the camera. If you at all enjoy foreign films, The Counterfeiters comes highly recommended.

The Incredible Hulk

As I mentioned in my review of Pride and Glory, I’m a huge Edward Norton fan and will see just about anything he’s in. After being disappointed by Pride and Glory, however, I was prepared for Hulk not to be very good. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. Hulk isn’t an Oscar caliber film, but it’s still a pretty good time. Norton gives a characteristically strong performance and the story is fast paced and action packed. I didn’t see Ang Lee’s 2003 version, but from what I’ve gathered Lee tried to take the franchise in the King Kong / Frankenstein sensitive beast tragedy direction, and it just didn’t click with viewers (it was a giant box office flop for those of you who didn’t know). It appears that writer Zak Penn and director Louis Leterrier took the criticisms of the last Hulk to heart and went out to address them one by one. If you’re in the mood for an entertaining big budget blockbuster, you could do much worse than The Incredible Hulk.

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In case you’re interested in checking out what I had to say, or just in discovering what I sound like (although I tend to think I sound a little weird, but doesn’t everyone think that about themselves?), you should check it out.

You can check it out here:

Cinebarre/Traitor Podcast!

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As a movie theater, Cinebarre’s ticket prices are a bit high, at $9 for adults, but are pretty reasonable if you use your college ID for a student discount ($7). Inside, the lobby of the theater has the appearance of a very open, but pretty cool bar, complete with two pool tables. They offer 12 beers on tap, with some decent selections like Stella Artois and Highland Gaelic Ale, as well as a quality list of bottles. The actual theaters themselves are unique. They have removed every other row of seating and replaced it with a counter for food, leaving the theater with only six rows and 60 seats total. Once seated, your server approaches and breaks things down. You place your order during previews while the lights are up and if you have any additional requests during the movie you simply write what you want on one of the provided white cards which the servers make periodic checks for during the film.

The menu fits as pretty standard bar food, with a heavy emphasis on fried items. Appetizers include staples like mozzarella sticks and hot wings. Your entree choices come in either pizza or sandwich form and range from $8-10.

For the entertainment side of our evening, we decided to watch Don Cheadle‘s latest, the war-on-terrorism themed spy film, Traitor (MetaCritic Score: 60). I’m a big fan of Cheadle’s work and Traitor‘s ads cited a review claming it was a 2008 equivalent of last year’s critically acclaimed Bourne Ultimatum, a bold statement that definitely grabbed my attention. While this claim drew me into the theater, it also established some pretty high expectations.

We decided to go with potato skins ($7) and fried pickle spears ($6) for our appetizers and they arrived about 15 minutes into the film. After waiting about 10 minutes for our food to reach a less than tongue melting temperature, we were able to try them out. The fried pickles were a first for me and the flavor was pretty unique. The combination of dill and ranch worked well together, but they were more than a little difficult to eat because the pickle kept escaping from its battered exterior. While they do give you a surface to eat on, it’s quite awkward trying to sit up and use it. We found ourselves holding our plates in our laps, using paper towels as placemats, and struggling to keep ourselves clean while still paying attention to the movie. The messiness of this dish ended up being representative of our dining experience as a whole. As a quick side note, I highly recommend avoiding movies with any subtitles at Cinebarre; we missed a fair share of lines while we navigated through our meal.

As we progressed further into the film, I began to feel like “messy” and “confusing” were going to be the major themes of the evening. Writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s film has an interesting premise, a deep cover US operative infiltrating an Islamic terrorist organization, but the execution left much to be desired. Rather than tight and intriguing, Traitor‘s story came off as simply muddled. It takes about 40 minutes for Cheadle’s character, Samir, to show that he is any different from the terrorists he’s supposed to be spying on. In addition, some of the elements that they played up in the previews, mainly Jeff Daniels role as Cheadle’s boss, were minimized during the actual movie. If the studio really wanted to make this concept work, they should have broken the story into two movies and spent one of them giving us more of the story of how Samir became the character that he is at the start of the film. As it stands now, we are largely left to make our own assumptions and it detracts from Traitor‘s overall effectiveness.

About 30 minutes into the film we received our entrees. I went with the “Blue Velvet” burger ($8.50). It came topped with bleu cheese, buffalo hot sauce, and chipotle mayo and was served with thin hand cut fries. It seemed like the buffalo sauce may have been used a bit liberally, as it became the dominate flavor. I enjoyed the burger, but it wasn’t terribly impressive. The fries, on the other hand, were delicious. I love thin shoestring style fries and when they’re fresh cut it’s all the better. My partner was disappointed with the fried green tomato sandwich ($8). She thought the breading on the tomato was too thick and the lemon caper aioli that sounded so appealing on the menu was rather bland. On the positive side, she did really enjoy Cinebarre’s house made potato chips. If I go again, I’m planning to break up the heavy fried stuff with one of their 10″ specialty pizzas. The one that most caught my eye was the “Braveheart” ($10) which comes covered with spinach, a four cheese blend, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, goat cheese, and olive oil.

Around the same time our entrees arrived, we received our drinks from the bar. I ordered their “famous” caramel porter float, a scoop of vanilla ice cream served in a pint glass with Saranac caramel porter. I was a bit skeptical of the idea of a beer float, but the result was an overwhelming success. The sweet caramel flavor of the beer blended wonderfully with the cool vanilla. This is something that I fully intend to try to recreate at home. My partner chose the sangria ($5) and claimed that it was far and away her favorite part of the evening.

As we finished our entrees, Traitor finally started to pick up. Cheadle is a tremendous actor and even in a poorly organized mess of a movie, his talent manages to shine through. He isn’t given a lot to work with, but he does milk the most that he can out of a largely flat script. The film does also manage to build some suspense as it draws near the conclusion. Samir is faced with some extremely difficult decisions as he walks the line between his need to participate enough to blend in with the terrorists and his moral obligation to not harm innocent people. The tension comes to a head as the real terrorists ask him to plan a major attack on American soil. Despite Traitor‘s flaws, I will give Nachmanoff credit for giving Traitor an inventive and totally unexpected ending that, in my opinion, saved the film from a failing grade.

We concluded our meal with Cinebarre’s only dessert selection, a wonderful hot fudge cake ($6) topped with chocolate icing, walnuts, whipped cream, and drizzled with caramel. It is incredibly rich and decadent, but not to the point of being overwhelming. It’s not something that you’d want to eat every night, but it’s definitely a great way to treat yourself.

Overall, both Cinebarre’s food and Traitor fall into the category simply described as, “meh.” They both had strengths, but were brought back to mediocrity by their equal weaknesses. I do feel that Cinebarre has a place in this world, though it isn’t what I initially imagined. Next time there is a big blockbuster movie hitting theaters, round up a bunch of guys, order a few beers, munch on some solid, greasy bar food and enjoy this tribute to American excess. Similarly, Traitor, isn’t the type of film that I’d recommend shelling out money to see in a theater. It simply isn’t the Bourne quality thriller that I was expecting and hoping for. That being said, if you’re a big fan of spy movies and love Don Cheadle, it’s probably worth renting once it’s released to DVD.

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I’ve spent some time on this blog making fun of actors, like Ben Stiller, who play essentially the same character in every movie they’re in. That being said, it may be sort of hypocritical to admit that I’m a big Jason Statham fan because, apart from Snatch and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, he’s as guilty of this as anyone. Really, it’s hard not to like the guy. In every movie he’s in, he’s just an unadulterated bad ass, indiscriminately kicking ass and taking names without letting emotion get in the way of the job at hand. Since this is what I like about him, you may be surprised to learn that I really enjoyed The Bank Job because there’s only one real action scene in the whole movie and it takes place in the last ten minutes.

The Bank Job is one of those movies that is “based on a true story” with the “based on” being very loosely defined. The real event on which the movie is based took place in London in 1971. The reason that it took this long for a movie based on the robbery to be made is that the government issued a gag order on media coverage for the sake of the national security. Used car lot owner Terry Leather (Statham) is convinced to perform a “sure thing” robbery that will leave him set for life. We get the vibe that Terry has always worked in a little bit of a legal gray area, but he admits that this is something entirely new for him. So, who or what could have convinced him to take the next step into major crime? Well, what causes most bad decisions made by men? Beautiful women, of course! The woman who gets to Terry is Martine Love, a former model who Terry has always had a weak spot for.

Obviously Martine, played by the lovely Saffron Burrows, hasn’t devised this plan herself and the real masterminds behind the plan have much loftier (and secretive) goals than just ransacking a few safety deposit boxes in the basement of a seemingly generic London bank. The web of parties interested in and affected by this robbery reaches both the highest and lowest points of England’s social landscape, from a member of the royal family to sleazy pornographer. The band of novice robbers quickly realize just how far in over their heads they are, and their quest for a life of leisure rapidly turns into a quest for self-preservation.

What makes The Bank Job successful is its pace and tightly knit storyline. There are no wasted scenes (in fact I recommend watching the deleted scenes because I think there are some they should have left in) and director Roger Donaldson does an excellent job building suspense. The acting performances are largely solid, with the supporting characters each adding something to the film without overstepping the logical boundaries of their roles. The film’s resolution is well composed and it is intriguing to see how the various plotlines come together.

As several critics have pointed out, The Bank Job is far and away the best heist movie in years. It is a refreshing change of pace from many of the recent additions to the genre which have devolved into high-tech, explosion ridden pieces of white washed mainstream dribble. The vast majority of movie goers will really enjoy The Bank Job and it is a good fit for most movie watching occasions.

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I’ve spent some time on this blog making fun of actors, like Ben Stiller, who play essentially the same character in every movie they’re in. That being said, it may be sort of hypocritical to admit that I’m a big Jason Statham fan because, apart from Snatch and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, he’s as guilty of this as anyone. Really, it’s hard not to like the guy. In every movie he’s in, he’s just an unadulterated bad ass, indiscriminately kicking ass and taking names without letting emotion get in the way of the job at hand. Since this is what I like about him, you may be surprised to learn that I really enjoyed The Bank Job because there’s only one real action scene in the whole movie and it takes place in the last ten minutes.

The Bank Job is one of those movies that is “based on a true story” with the “based on” being very loosely defined. The real event on which the movie is based took place in London in 1971. The reason that it took this long for a movie based on the robbery to be made is that the government issued a gag order on media coverage for the sake of the national security. Used car lot owner Terry Leather (Statham) is convinced to perform a “sure thing” robbery that will leave him set for life. We get the vibe that Terry has always worked in a little bit of a legal gray area, but he admits that this is something entirely new for him. So, who or what could have convinced him to take the next step into major crime? Well, what causes most bad decisions made by men? Beautiful women, of course! The woman who gets to Terry is Martine Love, a former model who Terry has always had a weak spot for.

Obviously Martine, played by the lovely Saffron Burrows, hasn’t devised this plan herself and the real masterminds behind the plan have much loftier (and secretive) goals than just ransacking a few safety deposit boxes in the basement of a seemingly generic London bank. The web of parties interested in and affected by this robbery reaches both the highest and lowest points of England’s social landscape, from a member of the royal family to sleazy pornographer. The band of novice robbers quickly realize just how far in over their heads they are, and their quest for a life of leisure rapidly turns into a quest for self-preservation.

What makes The Bank Job successful is its pace and tightly knit storyline. There are no wasted scenes (in fact I recommend watching the deleted scenes because I think there are some they should have left in) and director Roger Donaldson does an excellent job building suspense. The acting performances are largely solid, with the supporting characters each adding something to the film without overstepping the logical boundaries of their roles. The film’s resolution is well composed and it is intriguing to see how the various plotlines come together.

As several critics have pointed out, The Bank Job is far and away the best heist movie in years. It is a refreshing change of pace from many of the recent additions to the genre which have devolved into high-tech, explosion ridden pieces of white washed mainstream dribble. The vast majority of movie goers will really enjoy The Bank Job and it is a good fit for most movie watching occasions.

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There’s no doubt about it, Seth Rogen is Hollywood’s new comedy golden boy, and he’s got the rapidly growing resume to prove it. Since bursting into the spotlight last summer with the hugely successful Knocked Up and Superbad, he has been in six films and has five more due out between now and 2010. Given that quantity of work, it isn’t a huge stretch to assume that the quality of these films might start to deteriorate, but, if action-comedy Pineapple Express is any indication of what is to come, then Rogen’s stoner persona and portly physique must belie some truly impressive mental and physical stamina.

In Pineapple Express, Rogen plays Dale Denton, a pot-smoking process server who unexpectedly witnesses a drug kingpin and a cop commit a murder and finds himself running for his life after he leaves behind a joint of an exceptionally rare strain of weed as he flees the scene in a panic. His clueless, and oddly sensitive, dealer, Saul, played by James Franco, gets dragged into the fray when the pair realize that it was Saul’s supplier, Ted Jones, who committed the murder, and that he is the only person in town who is currently selling this particular strain. Disoriented and paranoid by their continuous reefer intake, Dale and Saul find themselves in a series of absurd situations and close calls as they run for their lives, trying to evade both Ted’s thugs and crooked police.

The film’s finest moments are those where Rogen and Franco are paired together on screen and allowed to work the semi-improvised magic that Judd Apatow’s films have become famous for. Although it has been almost ten years since they last appeared on screen together in the short-lived, also Judd Apatow produced TV series Freaks and Geeks, the duo display a chemistry that approaches the level of Chris Farley and David Spade’s heyday in the mid-90s.

While Rogen is unquestionably the film’s star, it is Franco who I feel gives the more impressive overall performance. Pineapple Express represents a massive departure from the stream of cookie cutter Hollywood blockbusters and chick-flicks that he has appeared in over the past several years and Franco handles the transition with ease. The role of Saul just seemed to fit him perfectly in a way that reminded me of how well Matthew McConaughey fit as Wooderson in Dazed and Confused.

In addition to Rogen and Franco, the film features an array of hilarious supporting characters. The best of these performances are turned in by fellow Apatow favorites, Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan, who play Jones’s henchmen, Matheson and Budlofsky. Danny McBride also gets in a few of the film’s best lines (“You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherfucker!”) as Red, one of Jones’s distributors.

One of the best compliments I can pay to Pineapple Express is that of the few weaknesses that come to mind, most are just a matter of personal preference. I have never cared for Rosie Perez (who plays the crooked cop) or Gary Cole (Ted Jones), and neither of their performances did anything to change that opinion. I also thought the side plot surrounding Dale’s girlfriend should have either been paid more attention or been removed all together and had that screen time directed elsewhere. These were really only minor issues, however.

Pineapple Express, while not rising to the level of Knocked Up or Superbad, is a genuine success in its own right. Rogen and Franco are hilarious and the supporting cast backs up the stars so capably that any pro-sports team would kill to have a bench this deep. The action scenes are skillfully blended with the comedy, leaving the perfect degree of absurdity to match the film’s overall tone. Apatow has another hit on his hands and Rogen is cementing himself as someone the studio big-wigs will be turning to for years to come, so long as he eventually shows that he is able to succeed in a role that doesn’t involve him repeatedly smoking blunts. I’d recommend Pineapple Express to just about everyone with a sense of humor under the age of 30.

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MetaCritic Score: 82

I realized on my way to the theater, four hours before showtime to ensure that we’d be able to get tickets, that I literally can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in theaters. It’s pretty ridiculous to think about, but there hasn’t been anything released in the past several months that made me say, “I have to go see that!” In fact, every movie I’ve reviewed for this blog has been a recently released DVD. So, when I started seeing previews for the one superhero movie franchise that I’m actually interested in, I was inevitably excited to get out to my first summer blockbuster of the year.

The main reason I like the new incarnation Batman series is twofold: 1) They decided to take the franchise in a new, edgier, and darker direction, a welcome relief from the nearly unwatchable Spiderman series, and 2) They chose the perfect actor to give Batman an edge (no one pulls off the wealthy, polished, but inherently troubled businessman like Patrick freaking Bateman).

In true blockbuster fashion, The Dark Knight, is a veritable smorgasbord of high octane action scenes. From beginning to end, the film moves along at a clip that pins you to the back of your seat. There are shootouts, explosions, car chases, you name it and The Dark Knight offers it.

Apart from Bale and the films unrelenting intensity, The Dark Knight‘s biggest draw and biggest success is obviously Heath Ledger‘s final performance. When I first heard that Ledger was playing the role of Joker, I was a little surprised; I mean, this is the same guy who starred in such “classics” as A Knight’s Tale and The Brothers Grimm. It turns out though, as Ledger advanced past his heartthrob days, he really learned how to act. Even if his face wasn’t obscured by makeup for the duration of the film, I still think that Ledger would have been nearly indistinguishable, this role was an enormous departure from anything else he’s done. The Joker was such a sadistic, cold blooded character that I believe whatever actor who was chosen to play him would have to have the truly rare ability to completely separate himself from his day-to-day self. I wouldn’t have guessed that Ledger possessed this skill, but I can’t argue with the end result. I’d also like to note, though it probably should just be assumed, but both Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman nail their roles. Having legends like those two fill two relatively small roles is an incredible luxury that only a film with a monstrous budget could dream of pulling off.

As far as flaws are concerned, I only really had two complaints. *Skip the next three sentences if you haven’t seen the movie* First, Aaron Eckhart, who I usually like, was pretty bad in the last third of the movie as Two-Face. Where the Joker seemed like a unique and intriguing character, Two-Face seemed like any other stereotypical comic book villain. I will give him credit for being a solid choice for the Harvey Dent part of the role though, though. *OK, resume reading* Secondly, Maggie Gyllenhaal is, much like Kirsten Dunst, a terrible choice for a role that requires a strong, sexy female presence. She’s an adequate actress, though nothing special, and she’s not someone who I would give a second look to if I saw her on the street, let alone someone who I should believe has captured the affection of Bruce Wayne.

Overall, I really had a blast watching The Dark Knight. You probably were already planning on seeing it, but on the off chance you weren’t then you should definitely reconsider. It’s not often that a huge summer smash hit delivers these kind of performances. Ledger will inevitably at least be nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Bale does as much as is possible with a character that is as inevitably rife with hyperbole as any superhero is. So, assuming you have any friends who haven’t yet seen it, tell them to stop being lame and to get out to the theater with you.

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